1. Field
This invention relates generally to the field of data processing and more particularly to the field of web content management systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Over the past few years, simple web content management systems (CMS) have emerged, making it easy for unskilled users to enter and update online content. One such CMS, invented by Ward Cunningham, is called a Wiki. Cunningham described Wiki as “the simplest online database that could possibly work.” Wiki provides a very easy way for people to collaborate and contribute information to a web site. The Wiki system uses wiki-text syntax to simplify the process of adding HTML to web pages. For example, wiki-text makes it relatively easy for unskilled users to add headers, bullet points, and internal and external hyperlinks to web pages.
Wiki engines typically store web pages as raw wiki-text. When a user requests a web page in “view mode,” the wiki engine renders the wiki-text into HTML, allowing easy browsing and viewing. Wiki engines can also present wiki-text in “edit mode,” where the raw wiki-text content of a web page is shown in a standard Web Form, allowing for easily web content editing and saving.
Weblogs (or blog for short) are another type of CMS. Blogs are typically online personal journals in which entries appear in reverse chronological order. The blog owner periodically creates journal entries that appear as content in the blog. Recently, hybrid CMSs have emerged having functionality of both blogs and wikis. These hybrids have been named blikis.
CMS users often insert “to do” items into web page text. “To do” items often relate to developing content within a web page and indicate that a CMS user should complete a specified task. For example, users may insert “to do” items to signify that a web page should be updated with particular information. As another example, users may insert “to do” items because a discussion within the web page has led to a need for some follow-up activity.
“To do” items can be represented by a unique character string followed by text specifying a task to be performed. For example, a “to do” item can be represented as:                TODO: We should do some follow up investigation on this idea of “serendipitous discovery.”By choosing a character string that is a unique sequence of characters (like “TODO:”), a CMS can find “to do” items by searching through web page content for the character strings.        
Finding “to do” items in the web content can be cumbersome because CMSs typically scan through text of each web page when searching for “to do” items. Furthermore, CMSs do not provide ways for creating automated reminders for “to do” items. Also CMSs do not typically “track” whether a user has performed tasks specified in the “to do” items. For example, CMSs do not typically record information relating to follow-up activity associated with “to do” items.